Seeing-off the train

Three men came on to the platform and said to the porter, "What time is the next train for London?"

The porter said, “You have just missed one. They go every hour; the next one is at ten o’clock.”

“That’s all right,” they said. “We’ll go and have a drink.” So off they went to the refreshment room. A minute or two after ten o’clock they came running and said to the porter, “Has the train gone?”

“Yes,” he said, “it went at ten o’clock as I told you. The next is at eleven o’clock.”

“That’s all right,” they said again. “We’ll go and have another drink.” So they went back to the refreshment room.

They missed the eleven o’clock train in the same way, and the porter said, “Now, the next train is the last one; if you miss that, you won’t get to London tonight.”

Twelve o’clock came, and the last train was just starting out, when the three of them came out of the refreshment room running as hard as they could go. Two of them got into a carriage just as the train was leaving, but the third one didn’t run fast enough, and the train went out leaving him behind. He stood there looking at the train and laughing, as if to miss a train was the best joke in the world.

The porter went up to him and said, “I told you that this was the last train. Why didn’t you come earlier?”

The man couldn’t answer for laughing. He laughed until tears came into his eyes. Then he caught hold of the porter and said, “Did you see those two fellows get into the train and leave me here?”

“Yes, I saw them.”

“Well, I was the one who was going to London; they only came here to see me off!!!”